Rick Perry: DISQUALIFIED

Rick Perry wants to be the President of the United States. There are folks who might think that’s a great thing but, I’m here to tell you today that he should be disqualified and should not even be able to be on the ballot.

The United States of America is NOT a Christian country. This country is a country of diversity and inclusiveness. WELL NOT TO MR. PERRY! He says this: “As a nation we must come together and call upon Jesus to guide us through unprecedented struggles and thank Him for the blessings of freedom we so richly enjoy.” Brother Perry, I’m sorry to tell you this but we have an establishment clause in our constitution. It says that the government “shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion…” You are free to exercise your right to talk to Jesus all you want but you can’t tell the rest of us that we should do it. That is strike one, my friend.

Now, some evangelical Christians will say that the founders of this country were Christians and established the country on Christian values. Aside from that simply being nonsense, in general, even the founders themselves deny it. For example, the great John Adams, among our country’s most active founders, himself stated: “It will never be pretended that any persons employed in that service had interviews with the gods, or were in any degree under the influence of Heaven, more than those at work upon ships or houses, or laboring in merchandise or agriculture; it will forever be acknowledged that these governments were contrived merely by the use of reason and the senses.” He also began the 1797 Treaty of Tripoli with the words: “As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion,...” Now, if Adams doesn’t speak for the founders then who does? Surely not Bachamnn and Perry, and Pawlenty, then their ilk. Indeed not. The founders themselves disagree with you Rick. That is strike number two.

Finally, here is what the good Mr. Perry said about how much he and his followers love our country: “Indeed the only thing you love more is the living Christ”. That is not the nice sentiment that it seems to be, my friends. Oh no. What I think that Mr. Perry just said is that fundamentalist Christian doctrine supersedes American constitutional doctrine. That violates the establishment clause; but, more importantly it violates the foundational principle of our leadership: to swear to uphold the constitution of the United States of America. How can you swear to uphold a constitution whose doctrinal essence you directly state is subservient to the doctrine of your religion! As far as I’m concerned that disqualifies Perry to even contend for the job of the lead defender of the American Constitution. Not only is that strike three, my friend, but it would disqualify you even if there weren’t 2 other strikes ahead of it.

So, my response to Governor Perry is this: I think not. I think that you are dangerously close to placing Christianity above Americanism. My people have made it through life without “the living Christ” for thousands of years. The American people have made it through two centuries of defending the most profound constitution of government in the world with not only “the living Christ”, but also with Buddhism, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Atheism, Agnosticism, Mormonism, Catholicism, and a hundred other -isms. “The living Christ” is your path and that is an awesome thing for you. But it does not qualify you to govern and, if you put it above all else, then it certainly does not qualify you to defend the American constitution.